United States President Donald Trump’s announcement of 100 percent tariffs on movies not made on American soil elicited criticism from filmmakers and film experts. As is the norm, commentators decried America’s isolationist strategy and spelled doom for the US film industry. But few, if any, analysed the president’s text to decipher his thinking and interest. An overlooked part of the Truth Social post characterised non-American-based film production as a “national security threat” and foreign tax incentives as a veil of “messaging and propaganda.”. If Trump had the right words, he would have alluded to film as an instrument of soft power, which the text suggests. Trump argued that countries were winning the information war by attracting filmmakers to their destinations. That argument points to culture as a soft power resource, and film is a carrier of culture.
Trump Movie Tariffs and the Global Competition for Soft Power (Benjamin Opiyo – Australian Institute of International Affairs)
Related articles
